Diving at Pigeon Island

Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Sun 24 Apr 2011 02:08
It was so hot and windless yesterday that Adam fell asleep on the settee at about half past eight, we had promised to go round for a drink at a guy called Ian's boat who we've spoken to a few times so I had to go on my own, had a good chat and some nice rum punch but was worried Adam would wake up and wonder where on earth I was so only stayed for one drink - it's pitch black at night here so I went to the wrong boat completely before I found his.  I needn't have worried as Mr Potter was still fast asleep when I got back again and hadn't realised I had actually been gone.
 
The wind is supposed to be back again overnight so hope it doesn't return with too much avengence so we can have a nice sail south, planning on heading off at first light it the morning. 
 
Glad we stayed though,  We've done a couple more dives today around here, in the morning around the west of the little island and afternoon on a wreck just a 5 minute dingy ride away from where we're anchored.  This morning was good but I think we did the best dive on the island yesterday, so saying we did see a couple of turtles - one of them feeding around the coral. There are quite a lot of divers go out here but it doesn't seem to have terrified the wildlife - it's opposite to that - I floated about a foot away from one of the turtles watching it feed, never been that close to one before.  It only left when it floated leisurely back to the surface to breathe.  Photo's will have to wait til we have wifi again.
 
This afternoon dingy-ed over to the buoy marking a wreck with camera at the ready. . .  both got in and went down to the deck. . . then I spotted water getting into the camera housing so back up to the surface again - I think the housing needs new o-rings so now camera is effectively out of action til I get them.  At least we managed to get the camera out of it's housing without it getting wet which is a bit of a delicate operation.  So after putting the camera and housing back on our boat with hardly any fuel left in the dingy we went out again for take 2.  Really glad we did as it was well worth it, the wreck was covered in fish, inside one of the rooms on deck a huge turtle about 3 ft long had lodged itself in for a sleep.  Went round to the stern of the wreck and spotted a monster sized moray eel sticking his head out of a deck hatch - most of the eels we have seen over here have been pretty small but this one had medium-dog size head and was probably a good couple of metres long - we weren't going to try swimming into his home anyway.
 
Spent about 45 mins swimming about the wreck and through the engine rooms, wish I had my camera as one of the toilets was still in situ but was full of silt (it must have been silt after all this time) and had a feathery tube worm growing out of the middle.
 
Had to go to the little supermarket about a mile away to get bread and things, had sort of forgotten it was easter out here too - they had lots of easter chickens and some easter bells (don't know if that's a french thing - easter eggs in the shape of a chicken or a bell(?)) - sadly couldn't buy them as by the time we got them back to the boat they would have been liquid.  It's 11pm now here and still 29 degrees indoors.
 
This evening have packed up the dingy and the boat again ready for (hopefully) sailing straight down to Grenada over the next 2 days.  Glad to have dived in Guadeloupe though, definately a worthwhile stop.